Date of Award

5-2023

Degree Name

Master of Science in Occupational Therapy

Department

Occupational Therapy

Project Chairperson

Maggie Hayes

Second Advisor

Renee Watling

Keywords

cultural competency, patient outcomes, healthcare training, culturally competent care

Abstract

The collaborating provider is Malcolm Reed, OTR/L who works at an outpatient clinic with the Office of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Tacoma, WA. The outpatient clinic that Malcom practices in is a multidisciplinary rehabilitation setting that provides therapy services of PT, OT, SLP, and chiropractic care treating a wide variety of diagnoses. Mr. Reed believes there is a growing need for a strategy to provide effective culturally competent care at the VA, particularly for the African American population. The need to provide care to the increasingly diverse veteran population guided student researchers to conduct a literature review asking if cultural competency training for healthcare providers at the VA is associated with improved patient outcomes. Full text reviews of 10 journal articles revealed qualitative and quantitative data on patient’s perceptions of cultural competent care, 2 cultural competency training outcomes studies, and patient health outcomes related to MDD, diabetes, HIV, health behaviors, and medical adherence to treatment recommendations. Studies reveal that culturally competent practices can positively influence patient outcomes via the interaction between patient engagement in health promoting behaviors and provider interpersonal skills and sensitivity.

Knowledge translation efforts consisted of synthesizing the data into a PowerPoint presentation to deliver to healthcare providers at a virtual interdisciplinary meeting at the Office of the VA in Tacoma, Washington. A live and recorded presentation disseminated results from the literature review and an infographic with evidence-based recommendations for best practice was provided to attendees and VA interdisciplinary email recipients. To quantify the efficacy of knowledge translation efforts, a pre- and post-survey was offered to attendees of the live presentation. Results indicate that participants improved in their understanding of the influence of culturally competent practices upon the healthcare outcomes in ethnically diverse populations. They expanded their definitions of cultural competency to include aspects of client factors not explicitly intertwined with identity, culture or background. Provider’s identified the role of interpersonal skills that build trust and improve communication as important elements of cultural competency. Providers expressed increased interest in accessing literature regarding the efficacy of cultural competency upon patient outcomes. Future recommendations include expanding studies that measure the efficacy of cultural competency trainings on patient outcomes in healthcare settings in and outside of the VA. Such studies should be large-scale and conducted on ethnically and culturally diverse populations. Effective knowledge translation efforts indicate that cultural competency trainings may improve provider confidence and stimulate provider interest in furthering their cultural competency knowledge and skills.

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